4 comments:

"Most of these dogs are healthy young adults that were acquired in haste by young people with unstable lives."

I encounter some of these dogs when walking. Talking to the "owner" I learn that it is their daughter's dog. The daughter "gifted" the dog to their mom when the daughter and boyfriend moved to an apartment that does not allow dogs. The 50 pound chow-cross came with a training collar that had dead batteries and no instruction book.

The mom is on the horns of dilemma. She was not able to find any replacement batteries with the same number and the dog was aggressively charging people walking on the road.

She eventually resolved the issue by taking the collar to the drugstore (our local Rite-aid) where a kindly sales person helped the mom cross-reference the equivalent US battery number. The batteries were in-stock and "Hunter's" habit of charging people walking down the road was cured in short order.

As you pointed out, the problem was not the dog, it was the original owner who treated her dog like a disposable fashion accessory. If the dog mattered, she would not have moved to an apartment that did not allow them.

I've always said. Don't tolerate mis-behavior from a puppy (or small breed) that you would tolerate from an adult (or large) dog. It is not cute. It the foundation of a relationship in your future with this animal.

My wife and dog and I live in a university residence hall. The kids absolutely love our little terrier even if she doesn't always reciprocate, and they periodically talk about getting dogs of their own when they get apartments, which invariably leaves me asking that they not inflict their utter lack of routine and discipline on an animal that needs both. None of my charges have yet made this mistake, but I see undergrad dogs in the neighborhood from time to time, and they are almost always ill-mannered and unhappy.

The rescue that I volunteer with will not adopt out to college-aged kids. Full-stop. They're too transient and way too irresponsible. Anyone who lives in a college town can tell you that these kids (sorry, but the average 18 year old nowadays is FAR from being an adult) simply dump their animals when the year or semester ends, on shelters or on their wretched parents. Even worse when they get rid of their 'pets' the same way they discard their unwanted dorm furniture, they dump it on the street or just leave it in the dorm for the college minions to get rid of.